60s 70s Driveways - Why did they have grass ...

[lunaalice]

Down the middle?

I can still remember my nans 40 years back. There are a few still around here.

Any ideas?

Not many people had cars then.

So there is a difference between a front garden and a driveway. Where my parents live the semis - 60s build - have grass and the driveway is beside it. Back in the day, the garage was accessed via side driveway and beyond the house. Cars became wider so could not get down driveway easily all the way and the garage they had then was too narrow. Most people in the street these days have either a smaller front lawn or garden area and widened gate/front driveway to park the car. Those with more than one car have lost the front garden space. Honest opinion, this looks less nice and it’s time households stopped polluting the planet/clogging up the roads with so many cars.

70s/80s houses tend to have garage at front attached to property and still room for a front lawn. Of course, that’s in suburbia not in middle of the city where we live. Properties - new and old - don’t get off street parking. Although recently, 4 new detached houses near us have been built on old factory premises and they have space for one vehicle off street and …. drumroll a small front lawn.

In a lot of ways it makes sense to only have the paving for the tyre tracks on the driveway and leave a strip for the grass in the middle. Perhaps that is something that we could do nowadays to partly offset the environmental worry about everyone paving over their front garden.

The one drawback I can see is mowing. You'd have to consider the level of the grass for ease of mowing.

Probably it was cheaper. Better for drainage too.

Was it because cars may drip oil?

The gardens probably originally were fully grassed. Then to add a driveway, it would be easier and cheaper just to add the two strips for the car to drive up and down.
Makes a lot of sense really and, IMO, looks better than the fully paved over front gardens that are everywhere now.

Cheaper and easier to lay two strips of concrete of a wheels width than put a whole drive down. Some would have been done by the homeowner themselves possibly mixing the concrete with a shovel if they didn't have access to a concrete mixer which would have been hard work so its understandable that they would have used the smallest amount they could get away with. The house I lived in, in the 60's had concrete paths and a drive laid by my Dad.

Cheaper to construct. Better for drainage. Better for insect life. Generally better for the environment.

Looks nicer, too. As originally it would be part of a garden that was alive, not am impermeable, lifeless parking spot

Yes, my family also made their own driveway strips, mixing their own grout and wouldn't do more than they had to!

No they did have drives.

I don't think you understand my question.

I don't know why this popped into my head. Thanks all.

It’s in case of oil stains. Grass can regrow!

we can edit posts now by the way!

Yeah, been trying to delete reply and don’t know how - just ignore

Yes, avoiding engine oil stains that leave permanent stains.

They are called ribbon or Hollywood driveways. I think the main reason for their popularity was cost. Cheaper to build and cheaper to maintain - they are less prone to expansion/cracking than larger drives and cheaper to replace if needs be. They are also better from a drainage point of view.

Cheaper. Much better for wildlife, too (lots of people were thinking about this even then).

Well clearly some people had. Or the thread wouldn’t have been started!

How do we edit? I’ve had a look but cannot see a link!

Ignore this, I’ve just worked out what to do!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow ?

Really?